You’ve never seen Mars like this. 👀 Our MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) mission got some stunning tie-dye views of Mars in these two ultraviolet images. MAVEN took the first image in July 2022 during the southern hemisphere’s summer season, which occurs when Mars passes closest to the Sun. The second image is of Mars’ northern hemisphere and was taken in January 2023 after Mars had passed the farthest point in its orbit from the Sun. MAVEN has a special instrument that lets us see Mars in ultraviolet wavelengths called the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph, or IUVS. Viewing the planet with IUVS can give us insight into the atmosphere on Mars and let us see surface features in remarkable ways. We can’t see ultraviolet wavelengths with our eyes, so these images are rendered with the varying brightness levels of three ultraviolet wavelength ranges represented as red, green, and blue. In this color scheme, atmospheric ozone appears purple, while clouds and hazes app...